This blog is no longer active due to an accidental deletion of photographs and the creation of my new blog at http://www.cheshercat.com/blog.
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Saturday, December 09, 2006

Blue Oyster Cult - Backstage

These are the formerly lost but newly found BOC backstage photos as requested by new reader, Chris Baker. I could not deny him (I hope you are a guy, Chris). He's seen Blue Oyster Cult 70 times. Since I misidentified or could not identify the members of the band in the live shots, I'm counting on Chris to pick me up on these shots. Of course, then I'll edit the post so I don't look like such an idiot.

Okay...that's Eric Bloom on the right and Frank Gigliotti from CBS Recordson his left. Don't know who's on the far left.

Help me here, Chris.

Ummm...

...and...

Ha...I know this one...Eric Bloom being interviewed by Tom Harrison.Can't remember who Tom was writing for then, but I hear he's still goingstrong with the Vancouver Province. Check out that reel-to-reel he used.

Anybody know what Eric is showing Tom?

Sadly, crappy eats on the table.

I'm guessing he doesn't know who he is either.

Chris: If you can ID the girls you get bonus points.

And if you talk to Albert, I'd be interested to know if he remembers coming to my house. Hopefully, his memory is better than mine and he can fill me in on what really happened. Whoever was recording was also really happy we were on the final approach path of the airport. I wonder if any of his audio tapes still exist?

3 comments:

Culo
said...

Hi there Deborah!!... those are some great pics of some really great people from quite a while ago!!. I worked for BOC on & off for 16 yrs….These look to be around 1974, the year before I went to work for them… if this is Vancouver, it would be the show on 21 Oct W/ T-Rex and Holy Smoke…here goes for ID’ng some of the folks…The girl with the long blonde hair and the flannel shirt in the second pic w/Buck Dharma (picking his teeth) is Carol Dodds… she was a part of BOC’s See Factor Industries lighting crew at that point… she has gone on to do lights and video for the likes of Nugent, Springsteen & more recently U-2… she is also seen sitting between Buck & Albert in pic 3The gentleman at the far right of pic 3 and in the close-up of pic 4 is Elliott Crowe, who at that time was BOC’s road manager AND production manager… he also ran the lighting system and called follow spots during the show… Elliott is perhaps most famous in the BOC camp as the one who came up with the “On Your FEET, Or On Your KNEES!!” introduction for BOC, which has become somewhat of a rock icon…That R-R tape recorder that Tom is using to interview Eric is a Nagra… those were VERY expensive (around 2400 1974 USD) as they were the industry standard for location recording of movie sound tracks and could be synched with either film or video… The device that Eric is showing Tom is a “Flash Ring”… this was a unit with something like a lipstick tube made onto a ring that one could slip over a finger… the lipstick tube was packed with flash paper (that‘s the step Eric is showing in the pic), and at the right moment in the right song (the end of Flaming Telepaths), Eric could press the little button on the side and a ball of fire would shoot from his hand….The gentleman with the leather jacket and shades is none other than one Sandy Pearlman… Sandy pretty much invented BOC, named the band, wrote the majority of their lyrics in the early days, produced their albums, and was the manager of the band… Sandy is no longer in the BUSINESS end of the music business but is now a college prof, teaching the ins & outs of music in the future.. and he’s still wearing his shades & lots of leather on a daily basis…Can’t help you with names on the girls, but they are familiar and I seem to remember they were actually from Seattle…. Wild to think they’re probably somebody’s Grandma these days!!If you’re ever really bored, you can read a bit about my life with BOC at http://www.hotrails.co.uk/blueskybag/samjudd/index.htmthanx for the memories… Sam Judd

Don't know if it comes across in my writing of the two BOC posts but I had a really great time with the band. They were all awesome guys and a lot of fun.

I was really shocked when they showed up at my house for a swim on their day off. But not as shocked as my roommates were.

They really were one of the highlights of my time shooting in Vancouver.

You pegged the concert...October 21, 1974 opening for T-Rex. Happily, everyone from the original BOC is still alive and kicking so they are not in my book, but since Marc Bolan and Steve Currie, BOC got a mention.

P.S. A little trivia...That nasty review of the concert from the Georgia Straight posted on the Hot Rails site was most likely written by Bob Geldof. He left Vancouver shortly after I did and became the lead singer for Boomtown Rats and so on and so on...